Quem arrisca não petisca

Or, nothing ventured, nothing gained.

Another week has sped by, bringing the usual combination of work and play. I hope you find an interesting nugget in here, or at least enjoy the pictures.

Blue skies, blue river, red bridge

Office life continues as normal. I did add a little excitement on Friday by going out for lunch with my ex-colleagues, which was entertaining - lovely to catch up with them. Otherwise, more translations, research tasks, gym classes, and café meals. The office was recently named one of the 20 best places to work in Portugal, so I really have nothing to complain about!

This is why I row (hopefully better than these people)

Rowing has been fun this week - particularly  yesterday (Saturday), when we rowed in the opposite direction from normal, up past the Praça do Comércio. It was very scenic and sunny. I sadly missed Monday's session (just missed a bus...) so did an erg on my lonesome, but we managed to have an outing on Wednesday evening, which was beautiful in the moonlight.

Sopa do dia

Now to describe the rest of the weekend! After rowing I met Carly and we enjoyed a delicious meal near the boat club, including vegetable soup, steak and garlic sandwich (for me), octopus (for Carly), Sumol (for me), wine (for Carly) and coffee. All very Portuguese.

I promise Sumol don't sponsor me, I just love it so much...

We then walked up towards Belém, still enjoying the sunshine, and even spotted a replica old-style Portuguese sailing boat, which I think was a caravel, but I may be wrong. We visited the Museu de Electricidade which had various interesting exhibits - lots of information about the old power station, some artwork, and even a Science Museum-type hands-on section for children... which of course appealed to both of us (very young at heart).

After getting the bus back into the centre of Lisbon we got some food, then I went home for a while, before going to cook and eat with Carly - we had been intending to go to the cinema or have a drink out later, but ended up staying in, before I went home.

Who's that person in the way? Oh... Carly...!

Of course, we met up again this morning in church - I read the first lesson so Carly and I were on the coffee rota as well, with its associated entertainment. We didn't leave church until about 1.45 - it was a long service to begin with, and people took a while to leave... so the washing up went on a bit! Eventually we left, picked up supplies from Pingo Doce, and got the 727 bus to Belém again to have a picnic in a pretty spot we´d seen yesterday. Again, plenty of sunshine and food to make us happy.

Carly and Jesse

We then got the bus to Praça da Figueira and walked to Martim Moniz where we met our new friend Jesse (from church - yes, another new church friend), then walked all the way up the hill to Carly's favourite Miradouro - Nossa Senhora do Monte - to watch the sunset and discuss all sorts of things (including Fernão Mendes Pinto, Portuguese Renaissance author... a bit of a niche interest...). It was a perfect way to end the weekend.

Night arrives in Lisbon

As always, thank you for reading!

SAL, Pimenta e Ferreira Rocha

Or, law firms in Mozambique

First, I should explain my title. One piece of work I've done in the office was a briefing on the different law firms in Mozambique. I'm quite easily amused and so found it hilarious that one was called SAL (salt), one was called Pimenta (pepper). and one was called Ferreira Rocha (Smith Rock - two surnames, but it sounds to me like Ferrero Rocher chocolates...)

Oranges on a tree in a park... definitely not something you'd see in the UK

Anyway, now I've got that out of the way, time to update you on my week! Again, it's been dominated by work and food, with the odd gym class and rowing session thrown in. There isn't much to report from either the first or the latter two - in brief, a struggle with Lisbon traffic on Monday meant my 15 minute bus journey took 50 and I missed most of the erg session, Wednesday brought a tank session (i.e. rowing from a concrete boat-like structure in a tank of water, for the uninitiated), and on Saturday we finally made it out in a crew of 4, which was great fun. The gym classes at work are fun and surprisingly good exercise...

Mouth full of cake + coffee in hand = happy Carly

Onto the exciting thing, i.e. food, which is a pretty effective summary of my weekend post-rowing. On Saturday afternoon I had arranged to meet a Brazilian journalist, who had come to the  book club and wanted to find out why English people might be interesting in Portuguese literature, in a pastelaria (café) in Campo de Ourique. Then I went to meet Carly (I saw the oranges above in the Jardim de Estrela on the way) and we went to another pastelaria in Rato (pictured), before wandering the streets a bit. I also found a copy of a Portuguese book that I've been looking for for ages because it's nearly impossible to find, so that was satisfying. We then ended up going to Park, which is a bar at the top of a multi-storey car park - highly recommended by various people, with excellent views. Then we made the spontaneous decision to go to a Goan restaurant called Cantinho do Paz, which I think my parents had mentioned as somewhere they used to go... In any case, it was delicious (if a little extravagant compared to our normal budget) and I survived a curry that the waitress told me was 'quite spicy'...

Cake, Compal. Not the Goan restaurant.

At church this morning Carly and I met Janice, who has just arrived in Portugal from Australia, and is staying for five months studying. We had a good chat over coffee then Janice agreed to come with us to the Museu Nacional do Traje (national costume/fashion museum), way up the metro - after a spot of lunch, of course. We enjoyed looking round both that museum and the Museu Nacional do Teatro - no prizes for guessing what that's about. They were both full of interesting things. And yes, we had another stop for refreshments in the café afterwards...

Flapper fashions

Old underwear

We headed back towards the centre of town and walked around the Marquês de Pombal area for a while, showing Janice where to find things and generally trying to be helpful. Eventually we decided it was dinner time... instead of another meal out, we picked up some groceries and went back to Carly's to cook. I don't think Janice will mind me writing this here, but Carly and I both thought it was sweet that she was surprised that cooking food at home can be so cheap and easy! All in all we had a great day together and I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Janice later.

Oooh museum things

These blogs seem to get shorter and less interesting every time, but I hope you've enjoyed hearing my news. Whether or not there's something more entertaining next week, I will probably end up writing about it all here again. :-)

Thank you for reading!

Os advogados são todos mafiosos

Or, lawyers are all in the Mafia*

Yep, according to one of the rowers, I'm in with the wrong crowd.

Lisbon, from the other side (see below)

I've had another good week in lovely Lisbon. There's very little to report from work (I go to work, work, maybe do a gym class, have lunch, work, and come home), but I have a few other things of interest to tell you about. Oh, one thing from work - I was introduced to the top boss, who is Very Important and also related to an ex-politican/political pundit who I've seen on TV. Exciting times.

On Thursday evening I went as planned to the Livraria Ler in Campo de Ourique, where I met Nicki, for the book club. There were a lot more people than had been there last time (well over 20). We had about half an hour discussing the book, O Meu Irmão, before Afonso Reis Cabral, the author himself, arrived to answer our questions and generally chat. The evening finished with port, which tends to improve everything**, although in this case the evening was already excellent so didn't particularly need the improving effects of port. Afonso was really interesting and fun to talk to. He also seemed ridiculously young (23!) to have such an amazing novel published. I still haven't quite finished reading it, but fully intend to in the next few days. It's an interesting story so far, though, and I can see why it won a prize, the Prémio Leya.

The book - it's signed inside!

The other fun things occurred at the weekend. On Saturday as usual I went to the rowing club, and was pleased to have a very sunny session on the river. This almost made up for the fact that Monday's training had been a surprise 60 minute erg. This is because the Leisure section are preparing for a 37km trip up the Tejo in March. I'll let you know how that goes...

Wandering through the streets

After rowing yesterday I got the 15E tram (one of the modern ones) into the centre so I could visit the post office, then picnicked in the Parque Eduardo, narrowly avoiding having my chouriço stolen by a dog. After a couple of hours getting things organised at home (and doing laundry) I went to meet Carly and we got the metro to Cais do Sodré, then the ferry to Cacilhas, on the other side of the river, and the bus up to the Cristo Rei statue. It wasn't just an attempt to use as many modes of transport in one day as possible... we were mainly there to take in the view and watch the sunset. We both took far too many photos as the sky got dark and the lights went on. After wandering around on that side of the river, we crossed back over, had some soup, and went home.



Did I mention I like taking photos of the bridge?

Sticking with my weekend normal routine, I did very little this morning until church - yet another new locum chaplain has arrived. Carly, Feyikemi and I then had the pleasure of being inducted into how to prepare/clean up the tea and coffee after the service, because we've been put on the rota. Hopefully next time we won't all get in each other's way; this time there were quite a lot of people all trying to do everything at the same time.

After the three of us (eventually) left, we went down to the Praça do Comércio and continued on to a nearby comfy spot of grass where we could enjoy the sunshine. Doosuur, another friend, also met us there. It was unbelievably warm today for January; as so often though, it felt far colder out of the sun. After a while we went to find food in a branch of Padaria Portuguesa, then wandered up Avenida de Liberdade trying to decide what to do. After we'd said bye to Doosuur, the other three of us ended up going to another café, A Leitaria, which I've walked past quite a lot. It always smells excellent and is full of people, so I had high expectations - it turned out to be quite nice, in a hipster sort of way.

Enjoying the sunshine

That was pretty much it - since then I have enjoyed dinner with Luísa, Elena and Luís at home, watched a bit of a political TV programme, and talked to people in England (hi!). I'm feeling well prepared for the next few days - they are due to be sunny too, which means nothing can be too bad.

Thanks for reading!

A final sunset photo, with the Sintra hills visible

* Please note that I don't subscribe to this view (or at least, after a total of 9 days in the office, I haven't seen any evidence of the Mafia). Anyway, in Portuguese 'mafioso' can mean generally criminal or unscrupulous, so don't take it too literally. Nevertheless, the sentiment may raise questions about the legal profession here...

** This is a light-hearted comment and not to be taken at face value. Don't worry, I haven't developed a port habit. Post-lunch coffee, on the other hand, is a different story.

Olá Lisboa

Or, hello Lisbon

And hello dear readers! Time for an update on my first week back in Lisbon.

Fancy architecture, the Portuguese flag, and a tourist tram: the Praça do Comércio

I arrived at about 9.30 on Monday morning (big 'thank you' to my mother for taking me to the airport at a very antisocial hour) and, half an hour and one taxi ride later, was settling back in to my room at Luísa's flat. With that task complete, I set out to Campo de Ourique, where I met the lovely Laura, previously mentioned in these pages as a rowing researcher, for lunch at Tentadora, that highly favoured café. The lunch was excellent, and we followed it up with a trip on the 28 tram and a wander round the Alfama area. We had been intending to visit the castle, but didn't quite manage it in the end. After enjoying a hot chocolate and saying our goodbyes - Laura's now left Lisbon - I wandered back and had a relaxing evening, chatting to the wonderful Luísa and Elena (what would I do without them?) and preparing myself for my first day in my new job.  

Enjoying the view with Laura

For those who are interested, I'm working in a law firm, mainly doing translation, writing/editing, and some research-based tasks. I began at 9.30 on Tuesday, and had a great first day, meeting dozens of colleagues - it's a big office - and starting my first few mini-projects. The rest of the week carried on excellently. I really settled in well, with a good mixture of things to do, and neither too little nor too much work, which was reassuring. Everyone has been really friendly so far and I'm enjoying the office culture, which includes an excellent canteen and free gym classes (if you didn't already know, food and sport are both close to my heart). One highlight was probably the lunch of 'pescadinhas do rabo na boca', fish fried with their tails in their mouths. Definitely out of the ordinary and yummy too.

An aside: one of the more amusing moments I had (and I really hope this doesn't offend anyone) was discovering the 'ebola advice' poster next to the coffee machine, which contains the wonderful line 'stay away from corpses'. Very sensible, but given that the poster was specially produced for the law firm (with its logo etc.) you would have thought it wasn't really necessary..? 

After putting in the hours at the office, I took the opportunity to relax at home in the evenings, although did manage to sneak in an extra (delicious) dinner with Carly on Thursday. It was great to catch up on each other's news and enjoy the wonders of Portuguese cuisine again. 

And so, to the weekend. On Saturday I went down to the rowing club - again, lovely to see everyone - and had a fantastic outing in the 4+ yole. I was overjoyed to see that the pontoon has been fixed; apparently Father Christmas was kind to the club (yes, one of my crew-mates really told me that). As the weather was still pleasant (i.e. warm-ish, not raining), I walked all the way to the Praca do Comércio then up to Rato and home, a long and not very direct route but good for seeing Lisbon, which was the main aim. 

Looking back towards the bridge and rowing club - quite a long way

I headed out again later to have coffee in Campo de Ourique with Nicki, a long lost friend who I hadn't seen for about 3 years. It was really fun to catch up and we'll be seeing each other again soon, at book club on Thursday - both of us are ambitiously trying to read a 360+ page novel by then, we'll see how that one goes. By the time I got home it had begun raining, and I was pretty tired, so stayed in and got on with reading the book.

Today (Sunday) I didn't venture outside until church - always a pleasure to be back there. Afterwards, Carly, Feyikemi and I went for a Padaria Portuguesa lunch, then Carly and I made the short bus trip to Belém where we visited the Museu dos Coches - an entire museum given over to royal coaches and carriages. Despite its niche appeal, it was very interesting, and we both learnt a lot. After a quick café visit, we headed home. I've spent the evening writing this, and skyping various people back in England, including a manic call with about 10 Oxford friends (hello you lot!), and good chats with my parents and Stephen. 

Friends, soup, pastries and fresh fruit juice - what more could you want?

A small selection of the coaches, with a very happy Carly

All in all, it's been an excellent week. Bring on the next!

Thanks for reading, everyone.

Até a próxima

Or, until next time

I'm now back at home in sunny England - and in fact have been for a couple of weeks now. Before 2014 comes to an end, I thought I would bring the blog up to date with my last week in Lisbon. Never fear - all being well, there will be more to come when I return to Lisbon in mid-January.

I last posted on Thursday the 4th. Friday was a normal day at work, followed by a meal out with the friendly people from my rowing squad at a restaurant in Santos, an area I haven't been to much. There was plenty of delicious food and it was nice to spend time with the rowers outside the club for a while.

Parque Eduardo VII

I was back with the rowers down at the club on Saturday for a final session. We managed to get the boat out despite the pontoon still being unusable, and had a good row in the sunshine followed by coffee at a nearby café. I had quite a relaxed afternoon and evening, which was nice. One reason it was so quiet was that Carly was feeling under the weather, so we put our plans on hold. On Sunday I went to church and read the lesson in Carly's place. From January I'll be on the rota in my own right, which makes me feel more part of the scene. It was the first service with a new locum, who in fact is right at home in Lisbon because he was the vicar at St George's for 10 years.

After the service I spent a long time looking round a craft fair in the Estrela garden, mainly looking for Christmas presents, before wandering around the nearby streets - very peaceful, and the beautiful weather helped. I met Carly, who was on her feet again, and we had an exciting trip to the police station to report that her phone had been stolen. We weren't the only people there for that reason - several other people came in about their phones while we were there. It definitely made me think a bit harder about looking after my valuables in the street - and in fact later on, as we were walking home, someone tried to snatch Carly's bag, driving home the point that you can't be too careful.

You can't argue with that view

After another relaxing evening, Monday brought deep joy in the form of a bank holiday. I met up with Carly and Feyikemi to go to the Christmas market in Campo Pequeno, which was again full of interesting stalls with a thousand and one things for sale. After a lot of wandering round, we left and went to a café near the Gulbenkian Foundation for lunch, which was very nice. Carly and I said goodbye to Feyikemi, then walked round the Gulbenkian gardens for a bit. I headed home for a while then went out again to have dinner with Sofia, who was home from Oxford for the vacation. Her whole family and a few other guests were also there, and it was a lovely occasion.

I spent Tuesday and Wednesday at work concluding my project - it seems to have gone pretty well. On Tuesday evening I had a last dinner at home with Luísa and Elena, and on Wednesday it was the office Christmas dinner, which was suitably foody - I almost lost count of the number of courses, all of which were delicious.

"Cutting-edge street art"

That just left Thursday, which passed remarkably quickly. I got up at a reasonable time and packed pretty much everything within two or three hours. I then met Carly for one final Portuguese meal, a farewell lunch at an excellent (and good value) restaurant near her flat. I had a few errands to get done, and to cut a long story short, ended up down by the river. To make sure I had plenty of time to get to the airport, I decided to get the metro, but there was a signalling failure and no metros were running. I couldn't find any buses either, or even a taxi, so just walked/ran (quite a long way) up to Marquês de Pombal, where I finally found a taxi. The driver was extremely helpful and kind, and agreed to wait by my flat while I grabbed my suitcases, before taking me to the airport. Of course, I actually ended up there with hours to spare; check-in was very quick, my bags were the right weight, and my flight was delayed. I made full use of the free wifi and skyped Stephen at length before the plane set off. Soon I was back in chilly England, and was met by my lovely family.

The rest of my holiday is strictly outside the remit of this blog, but all being well, I will be back in a couple of weeks with news of my return to Lisbon.

Feliz Ano Novo!

Anda cá!

Or, a small child talking to animals

I've had another fun week and a half since last updating the blog with my normal diary-type entries. So, if you're interested in the round-up, here goes!

I still love this view

Things have kept to their pattern of weekdays at work, and evenings and the weekend for fun things. To summarise the former: work has carried on being work-y. I'm coming to the end of my business-planning project, so it's satisfying to feel like I'm completing something useful. The Christmas lights have also been put up and turned on outside the office windows, which is fun, and good compensation for staying at my desk until after dark most days.

Rua da Escola Politécnica at dusk, with lights. A bit hard to photograph...

Aside from that, interesting things have occurred. I've had a few rowing sessions, some on the water and some inside, either tank or erg. One reason we haven't been able to get out on the river as much as we'd like is that the bridge down to the club's pontoon somehow broke, probably in high winds. Getting boats on the water is a bit of a logistical challenge, albeit one we overcame yesterday with a daring descent down a very slippery slipway. 

It's a bit hard to tell what's going on here. Suffice it to say, it shouldn't look like this.

The weekend brought sunshine, and I spent a fair amount of Saturday (post-rowing) wandering through the city streets. I enjoyed sitting in a small garden near the Ancient Arts Museum, doing a bit of people-watching (and listening... always good for the language skills!). I watched a small boy encouraging first a cat, then a little fly to play with him - 'Anda cá! Anda cá, bichinho! Anda cá!' (Come here, little animal!) Another high point of this walk was discovering a second hand bookshop that prominently advertised the fact that its prices were in euros - but even that thirteen-year-old sign seemed to be more modern than most of the rest of the shop.

I also finally managed to eat Pão de Deus, a deliciously sweet confection of bread and coconut that various people had recommended me. It completely lived up to high expectations, and I remembered to photograph it (or rather, the remaining half of it).

What's that you say? Half-eaten food makes bad photos?

Later in the day I met Carly in the Parque Eduardo and we ended up wandering down to Rossio for a while too, before heading our separate ways for the evening. We spent most of Sunday together anyhow. Church was a little chaotic - three baptisms and a burial, as well as it being Advent Sunday and the last service with the lovely locums, Ian and Caroline. There was lunch in the hall afterwards, which was a treat, as always. Carly and I then went out aiming to do some shopping, an aim that wasn't really fulfilled. We walked down to the Baixa, and met Carly's friend Lauren there briefly, before getting the metro up to Columbo, the biggest shopping centre in Europe. It was pretty impressive, in an overwhelming way - full of people, slightly too warm, and noisy. I don't think I'll be heading back too frequently. Fortunately Carly's presence made it all bearable! In any case, a relaxing evening at home worked wonders before the start of the next week, especially skyping my family. 

Carly in Christmas-y Columbo

Monday evening brought another trip to the boat club, as did Wednesday (yesterday). But yesterday evening was particularly exciting for another reason - Laura, the rowing researcher, invited me to her flat for dinner, and then to a dance performance at her faculty, the Faculdade de Motricidade Humana. Her friend's girlfriend was in the show, which was being given by the second-year students from the dance degree programme. It was really impressive - contemporary style, with lots of solo pieces - and it was great to see a small glimpse of Portuguese university life.

Today was another normal work day, but in the evening I had another adventure, going to a book club at a wonderful bookshop in Campo de Ourique, the Livraria Ler. I hadn't actually read the book being discussed (long story: I had been reading the wrong one, because they'd changed their minds about which it was going to be), which was Eça de Queirós' Contos (short stories), but everyone made me very welcome even so. I also managed to purchase some set texts for next year's work, which can't be a bad thing. So I now have a nice stack of books to squeeze into my suitcase next week.

Bonus photo for getting to the end

Thank you for reading, everyone! Until next time.

Public transport in Lisbon: 7 tips, plus a bonus

Hello! This post is something a bit different from my normal descriptions of life in Lisbon, aiming to introduce you to the wonderful world of public transport in the city. I hope it will be useful to anyone planning a visit to this beautiful place.

Yes, it's a tram, of the traditional sort

So, without further ado:

1. There's no good substitute for planning ahead. The public transport system (known to Lisbonites simply as 'transportes') covers the city really well, but it can be difficult to work out routes on the go, as information at stops can be confusing - that is, assuming you manage to find the stop in the first place! Having a look at the metro (underground) map and the bus/tram network map will go a long way to help you with this. Likewise the suburban train routes, if you're heading further out of the city.

2. If you're waiting at the stop for a bus or tram, you need to make a clear signal that you want to get on, i.e. stick your arm out into the road. If you are facing the wrong way and don't notice the bus approaching (and therefore don't make a signal), it will drive straight past you, leaving you to wait for the next one. Yes, this has happened to me - but it's a mistake you only make once!

3. There are often helpful signs telling you how long you have to wait for a bus/tram. These are generally accurate, but can be completely wrong, especially if the weather's bad and the traffic's busy. Some stops (e.g. ones where only one route stops) do not have them at all.
The metro has a similar system, which is nearly always accurate to within 20 seconds. Yay, efficiency.

This was at about 6am, hence the '76 minutes' until the 738 arrived.

4. There are lots of different ticket options. This could get complicated, so take a deep breath and bear with me. The main types of ticket are:

• Lisboa Viva. A card valid for 6 years for the individual whose name and photo appear on it. To get it, you have to fill in a form and pay a fee (€7 to get it in 10 working days, or €12 if you want it within 1 working day). The card must be topped up with a monthly pass, costing from around €36, or more to include train travel as well as metros/buses/trams. Only worth doing if you are living in Lisbon for a long time, and using more than €36 of public transport (excluding trains) a month.
• Viva Viagem and 7 Colinas cards. These are purchased for an initial fee of €0.50 and can either be topped up with a day pass (€6 - only worth getting if you're making more than 4 journeys in 24 hours), or used for 'zapping' (pay as you go credit). Zapping can be either for a certain number of journeys, or a certain amount of credit. €5, €10 or €15 are the standard top-up amounts at machines, but if you ask at a desk, they can put a specific amount of credit on. You also receive a 'bonus' depending on how much you add, up to an extra €1.15 for €15. For zapping, each journey costs €1.25, whether it's on a bus, metro or tram. Zapping credit can also be used on suburban trains, at very reasonable prices.
  The two cards do exactly the same things, the only difference seems to be that 7 Colinas is sold in shops (e.g. newsagents), and Viva Viagem is sold by the machines in metro stations. They can be used for up to a year after the date of purchase.
Bonus tip: The system in Porto is pretty similar. The Andante card is basically the same as Viva Viagem and 7 Colinas.

5. There are two different types of trams: the traditional sort, pictured above, and the new 'supertrams'. They can use the same lines, but they operate on different routes. The 12E, 18E, 25E and 28E are the traditional sort. The 15E is the modern sort.

An example of a 15E, closely followed by a bus, in case you couldn't recognise it.

6. On the subject of different route numbers - I don't really know how the system works, although bus routes are three digits, 7**. Tram routes are **E.

7. Watch out for strikes. They happen alarmingly frequently (to a British mind). The helpful website Há Greve? (slogan: see if you'll manage to get to work) can tell you whether there are any strikes planned for the next few days.

Have fun! If you have any questions, just ask me in the comments and I'll do my best to answer.